The Flea
by EllenBelle
Summary: This story is based on the poem “The Flea”, by John Donne. Some of the words used here are his, some of them are from the film, and some of them are mine.


The world of Escher fell away, leaving Sarah standing on an island of stone. Jareth strode towards her, his eyes full of many emotions, both human and no.

Sarah looked at him strongly.

"Give me the child," she demanded.

Jareth was angered by her brazenness. "Sarah, beware. I have been generous up until now, but I can be cruel."

"Generous! What have you done that's generous?" Sarah was equally angered. Had she not done what was asked? Had she not performed his tasks?

How could she not comprehend, Jareth thought. Everything he had done he had done for her. "You asked that the child be taken, I took him. I have reordered time, I have turned the world upside-down and I have done it all for you!"

"You were frightening," Sarah whispered.

"But I am exhausted from living up to your expectations of me."

A wry smile made its way onto Jareth's lips. She had cowered before him. And she would cower before him again. But he had to bow to her first. Kneeling before her, Jareth took her hand and pinched at the skin on her wrist.

Sarah tried to pull away from him, "ouch!" she exclaimed, but Jareth held fast. He inspected his pinched fingers, looking closely at the black speck in his hand.

"A tick, a flea, from the gardens no doubt. How little is it that you deny my, when an insignificant insect can take your life force with so little persuasion," he drawled, watching the arthropod as it latched and began a second feast. "See how it now takes blood from me! Our blood, as our fate, is mingled."

Sarah finally struggled free from Jareth's grip, crossing her arms against her chest.

"Look at this flea! How little is it that you deny me? The flea has taken blood from me, and from you, and in it our blood is mingled. This cannot be said to be a loss of maindenhood, a sin, a shame. Yet it did not woo you like I have, and I have courted you. Yet this insect has taken more from you than what you would allow me to have."

Sarah's brows furrowed, as if she were musing on this idea. But her thoughts were much more dangerous than that.

"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City. For my will is as strong as yours, and my..."

Hearing these words, Jareth stood and pulled Sarah into his arms.

"Stop! Wait! Look, Sarah. Look what I'm offering you." He resisted the urge to shake her, to make her understand what he wanted, what he deserved.

"Stay!" he demanded, "There are three lives now in this insect! In him we are almost, no, more than married. If this flea is our marriage bed in blood, why would you deny me the submission of your body and your heart?"

"...and my kingdom is great." Sarah seemed to ignore him, eyes fixed somewhere in the distance.

"I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want."

"My kingdom is great... damn!" She beat a fist against her captor's chest. "I can never remember that line"

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave," Jareth was becoming ashamed of the desperate edge that his usually controlled voice took. "We are already one within the walls of this black body!" He pushed his finger before her face.

"My kingdom is great," Sarah's eyes grew wide with realisation, though not of Jareth's argument. "Your words, your lure. It's only true while I believe it."

"Sarah," Jareth warned, grasping at her shoulders. "This flea cannot be guilty, except in the drop which it sucked from you. How can I be guilty, if I have not been so close? Neither of us are the weaker for the connection, for this intimacy. Just honour me and yield to me!"

"You have no power over me!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

And with that she was gone, Jareth's hands left empty, clutching only at air. A heavy sigh filled the sudden silence, and Jareth turned to walk back to his empty castle full of goblins.

Glancing at the flea still on his finger, he crushed it with his thumbnail and smiled.

"Let not to this, self-murder added be, and sacrilege, three sins in killing three."


End file.
